Governance
Both the Program in Biology and the Medical School, which are combined administratively as the Division of Biology & Medicine, are governed by the Dean of Medicine & Biological Sciences who reports directly to the Provost of the University. Within the University Corporation the Division is overseen by the Corporation Committee on Biomedical Affairs.
The Medical School includes the departments of Clinical Neurosciences, Community Health, Dermatology, Diagnostic Imaging, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Medicine , Obstetrics & Gynecology, Orthopaedics, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Pediatrics , Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Radiation Oncology , and Surgery.
The Program in Biology includes five departments: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology, and Neuroscience.
Each department is administrated by a chairperson who serves a five year term and is appointed by the Provost on the recommendation of the Dean of Medicine & Biological Sciences. The governing body of the Division Biology & Medicine (composed of the Medical School and the Program in Biology) is the Biomedical Faculty Council. The council discusses and formulates recommendations on academic policy matters and interdepartmental and supra-departmental affairs, often after consultation with its standing committees.
Full-time faculty of the Division of Biology & Medicine can also be viewed from a curriculum perspective: the faculty concerned primarily with the basic sciences (or undergraduate, graduate, and pre-clinical years), approximately 136, are based on the Brown campus and housed primarily in the Biomedical Center, located at the corner of Brown and Meeting Streets, while the approximately 434 full-time faculty working in the clinical disciplines are based primarily in the affiliated hospitals. Course are taught by faculty from all departments who may hold a Medicine, Biology (basic science), or Medical Science appointment. In addition, some courses may involve faculty from the non-Division University faculty and/or the hospital-based faculty.
All full-time faculty hold full faculty rank in the general University faculty including full voting privileges at University faculty meetings. Most hospital-based faculty receive their salaries from the hospitals.
The Medical Faculty Executive Committee (MFEC) serves as a central steering committee for the hospital based faculty of Brown Medical School. Its charge includes investigation of matters of particular concern to the medical faculty, including grievances. The MFEC membership includes faculty representatives from all of the hospitals that are part of the Medical School. Ex-officio members of the committee include the Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences, the Dean of Medical Faculty Affairs, the President of the University (or his/her representative) and representatives from the administration of each hospital or hospital system. Full members of the committee represent teaching scholar, research scholar and (research) faculty. The current members of the MFEC are listed with information on how to contact them on the Brown University faculty governance web page and on the MFEC web page.
Approximately 1215 physicians in the private practice of medicine in Rhode Island hold clinical faculty appointments at Brown. These individuals provide instruction and/or student counseling for the Medical School on a voluntary basis. In addition, about 700 house staff officers (residents) and fellows in the affiliated hospitals assist in the instruction of Brown students during their clerkship experiences.